After Wearing: Curated by

Damian Skinner and

Monica Gaspar

A History of September 25
–

Gestures, Actions, November 14, 2015

Opening reception:

and Jewelry September 24, 6–8 PM

Pratt
Manhattan
Gallery
This publication is
sponsored in part by the
Rotasa Foundation and
the Society of North American
Goldsmiths (SNAG).

Special thanks to Patricia

An Invitation
Madeja, professor,
Department of Fine Arts,
Pratt Institute to Participate
Pratt A conversation between
Manhattan
Monica Gaspar and Damian Skinner
Gallery

144 West 14th Street

New York, NY 10011
212.647.7778

Gallery hours
Monday–Saturday, 11 AM–6 PM
Thursday until 8 PM After Wearing:
www.pratt.edu/exhibitions

A History of
Gestures, Actions,
and Jewelry
Monica Gaspar and Damian Skinner

Selected Works
 An Invitation
MG On 20 August 2012, your email arrived initial texts, it became clear to me that
with the proposal to curate an exhibition the nature and meaning of participation
together. It has been a long and exciting and relationality depends very much on

to Participate
journey to relocate typical discussions what perspective you occupy—whether
about contemporary jewelry within a you are looking from the maker’s position,
context of participation and use through or from the wearer/owner/user’s position.
A conversation between the format of an exhibition. When you I wondered if making our project about
Monica Gaspar and Damian Skinner approached me in 2012, I had just finished the user would allow us to think across
curating the show Metadomestic at a number of different problems in
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art contemporary jewelry discussions that
(MIMA) in Middlesbrough, United Kingdom. hadn’t been tackled yet. What would a
In that exhibition and catalog, I explored history of contemporary jewelry from the
the idea of “the applied” in relationship point of view of the user look like?
to contemporary art and design. I found MG I remember this initial phase. Our
that phrase interesting because it main research topics were “assemble,”
suggests an action or performance (to “perform,” and “participate,” which
“apply” something somewhere) as much were very much focused on the aspects
as a reaction (it has been “applied”). of making.
“The applied” suggests an unstable DS Indeed, we did quite intensive research
condition, since it requires both an agent on makers that have introduced issues
(someone to do the applying) and a goal of customization in their work, from Anni
external to itself (something to be applied Albers’ modular jewelry in the 1940s to
to). I thought the term was pragmatic as Ted Noten’s Chew Your Own Brooch in
well as utopian in nature, and it provided the 1990s. But then we started to see a
me with a frame to present current difference between this kind of approach
conceptual developments in the applied to jewelry and projects that invited a
arts as intrinsically relational: “Applied” different (perhaps a deeper?) involvement
art as a social art in action. from the wearer/owner/user. Quite often,
DS At that time, I had finished editing the these involved social media to collect
book Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective and record the wearer’s experience, and
(Lark Books, 2013), which involved a “making” wasn’t always important.
considerable effort to survey the field on MG These projects seemed to belong to the
a global scale and gather authors to deliver kind of post-studio practices that had
both historical and critical texts. Some emerged since the 1970s. At some point,
chapters pointed at the missing narratives we realized that if we wanted to follow
around the wearer, and also indirectly to those developments, our curatorial
the need for research about the recent perspec­tive would need to become
past—especially about those jewelers “post‑studio” as well. I sent you an email
whose work has become increasingly with a radical proposal: let’s dump the
participatory, requiring action from, or jewelry! That became a critical moment.
interaction with, the audience in order to We wanted to focus on the kind of
exist. It seemed to me that we were both gestures, actions, and meanings these
very much thinking about the perspective objects make possible, but paradoxically,
of the wearer/owner/user, and that a because of their presence—which
collaboration would be beneficial. My initial invites aesthetic judgment—these other
thoughts were circulating around a show aspects kept receding into the shadows
that would have two layers: an art historical once again. By banishing the objects
investigation of the “relational turn” in from our exhibition, there was a chance
contemporary jewelry and its precedents; to activate the audience’s social
and a curatorial investigation of how to imagination—the images and references
stage an exhibition of jewelry practices and experiences that people carry in
that require audience participation in their heads about the idea of jewelry—
some sense, and don’t necessarily exist as which is so much broader than the artistic
objects. I thought that perhaps our project jewels of contemporary jewelry.
should be called “Contemporary Jewelry: DS We went crazy thinking about loaded
A User’s Guide.” In my research for our categories or genres: heirlooms, political
 badges, luxury accessories, candy chains around jewelry. It was great when designer
for children, jewelry lost on the subway... Martí Guixé accepted the invitation to
It gave us license to take seriously an idea collaborate with us and transform our list
that hovered around our discussions, that into a mind map, populated by interactions
maybe jewelry in the world—the kind of and actions, meanings and emotions,
jewelry that most contemporary jewelry and commitments and side effects around
is deliberately rejecting or critiquing—is different jewelry experiences.
actually more re­lational, more active, DS Guixé’s drawings visualized what we
holding more potential. It is pretty hard called the “scale of relationality.” It was
to imagine anything more potent than a our own version of the Mohs scale of
wedding ring, and that made us realize mineral hardness, a way for us to look
that sometimes artistic intentions can be at a piece of jewelry and measure its
a barrier to relational potential, rather relational potential! While it started as
than a guarantee of it. a joke, it actually became very useful
MG It has been exciting to try out the theo­ and central to our sense of what we
retical frame provided by “relational were doing. Once this conceptual frame
aesthetics” in the context of contemporary was secured as a pivotal element of the
jewelry, to finally recognize that jewelry show, we came back to the practices
is actually a category of objects that has of the artists that had triggered these
always been relational in nature. This thoughts with their work. It was soon clear
fundamental characteristic has been often that we should have existing work and
neglected by artistic responses around documentation of trajectories along with
jewelry, which have primarily focused on site-specific projects. The selection of
what jewelry is and not so much on what works features contemporary practices
jewelry does. in and around jewelry, ranging from
DS We are replacing the dominant model of speculative design and conceptual craft
the critique of preciousness. This installs to photography, video, performance,
the maker and aesthetic criteria as the key and participatory projects.
criteria for the value (economic as well MG Throughout this project, we have
as cultural) of a piece of jewelry. For this glimpsed a fragmentary and mostly
exhibition, we have developed a model that unwritten history of jewelry that is not
prioritizes the way objects and practices about material research, but engaged
function—the gestures and agents that in aspects of wearing and use. That’s
are involved in the relational aspects of a why our title mentions history, as a nod
piece of jewelry. In part, I wanted to follow to this genealogy; and it is also why our
the “non-human turn” in social science show includes old and new projects.
to explore what happens when the object While we can’t survey these instances
itself is understood to have agency and be of different ways of thinking about what
a social actor. jewelry is and what it does, we can
MG Your motivation somehow echoed my remind ourselves and our visitors that
investigations into the practice of wearing contemporary jewelers have, really since
as an identifiable cultural technique. the beginning of a practice called
This puts jewelry back into the social “contemporary jewelry,” been aware of
world to show how it operates and what jewelry’s relational potential.
its potential is. From that point onwards,
we started to list the actions, objects, and
contexts that responded to the questions:
“What can I do to a piece of jewelry?”
(Wear it, gift it, lose it, endow it with
meaning and emotions, etc.) and “What can
a piece of jewelry do to me?” (Embellish
me, demonstrate my wealth and power,
shape my interactions with others, modify
my body language, make me part of a
group, etc.). This list grew into a poetical
catalog of over 200 actions and gestures
 After Wearing: The works in the first section of this exhibition jewel is made by (or profoundly affected by)
demonstrate that jewelry is a powerful phenom­ the wearer, a souvenir of moving through a
enon in social life. Viewers are introduced specific landscape in a certain way (Roseanne

A History of
to a series of artworks (moving image and Bartley, and Lauren Kalman and Kipp Bradford).
photographs) that in different ways circle As well as encountering past manifestations
around what we are calling the “gestures of of these projects through various kinds of

Gestures, Actions,
jewelry”—the movements, poses, attitudes, documentation, viewers are invited to take
and behaviors that seem to be in some way part in relational works and experience directly
characteristic of jewelry. Often these gestures these important shifts in thinking within the

and Jewelry
are learned behaviors, mediated by the contemporary jewelry field.
representation of jewelry in photography, film,
television, and art, which is why so many of
Mònica Gaspar is a design historian and a researcher at the
Monica Gaspar and Damian Skinner these works use found images to construct Institute of Theory at the Zurich University of Arts. In 2001 she
their archives or catalogs of gestures. It is also curated the first public collection of contemporary jewelery
in Spain (Design Museum, Barcelona) and since then she has
notable, and important to our argument, that
been actively involved in curating, writing and lecturing about
these artists and makers—a number of them are contemporary jewelry. In 2010 she curated the groundbreaking
jewelers who have established practices in the exhibition Schmuck in Munich.
contemporary jewelry field—focus on fine or
Damian Skinner is an art historian and curator of Applied Art
conventional jewelry, rather than contemporary and Design at the Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki
jewelry. In part, this is an issue of scale and Paenga Hira, and an enthusiastic user of contemporary jewelry.
He is the editor of Contemporary Jewelry in Perspective
economics; there is so much more money
(Lark Books, 2013) and the co-author of Place and Adornment:
associated with conventional jewelry, resulting A History of Contemporary Jewellery in Australia and New
in a scene with a much greater visual culture Zealand (Bateman, 2014).
of mediation and representation than the
experimental one of contemporary jewelry.
In the second section of the exhibition,
viewers are introduced to the “Scale of Relation­
ality,” which through graphic illustrations
articulates multilayered sets of jewelry actions
within the frame of everyday experiences.
The scale is broken into four different sections,
with the possibilities arranged as narratives
that involve transformation from one state
to another: WEARING (about choosing when
to wear: from never to always); ATTACHMENT
(about wanting: from acquisition to disposal);
OWNERSHIP (about connecting: from me/
individual to us/the collective); and MAKING
(about participation: from receiving to custom­
ization to co-production).
In the third section of the exhibition,
visitors are introduced to various projects
that exploit the relational and participatory
potential of jewelry. These projects focus on
the user/wearer rather than the maker, and
introduce the possibility that jewelry need not
be an object, but rather an opportunity for
interaction—where the jewel as an outcome
of craft skills and processes encounters
new contexts and audiences (Gabriel Craig);
where jewels of different kinds are valued
in new ways as profound agents of meaning
and identity (Mah Rana); where the jewel
dematerializes altogether, leaving only ways
of looking or behaving as a cultural producer
(Schmuck2 and Yuka Oyama); or where the
 Jhana Millers and

Gestures Suska Mackert

Display, 2013-14
Photographic prints
39 3/8 x 19 5/8 inches each
Courtesy of the artist

Tracey Clement
A Leading Role, 2006
Video
42 seconds
Courtesy of the artist

Jessica Craig-Martin
The General, 2014
C-print
26.75 x 35.75 inches
Courtesy of Winston
Wächter Fine Art, Seattle Joanne Wardrop
Matrimonial Rituals,
Gender Studies and False
Facial Hair, 2013
Courtesy of the artist

Suska Mackert with

Thomas  Dierks
Trailer02, 2001
Video
5 minutes 20 seconds
Courtesy of the artist
Robert Smit
Everyday Adornment, 1975
50 Polaroids
4.25 x 3.5 inches each
Courtesy of Robert and
Louise Smit
 Scale of Participatory
Relationality Projects
Martí Guixé
Detail, Scale of Roseanne Bartley
Relationality, 2015 My Shadow Wears: Green
Courtesy of the artist Ticket (Barcelona), 2012
Photograph and
wooden frame
Courtesy of the artist

Gabriel Craig
Pro Bono Jeweler, 2007
Courtesy of the artist
Lauren Kalman and Mah Rana
Kipp Bradford Meanings and Attachments,
Virus Simulation, 2011–2015 2002–present
25 brooches, custom Clockwise from top left:
designed circuit board, Sukhjeet, 2003, Elizabeth,
electronics 2015, Salabanzi, 2004,
2 x 2 x 0.35 inches each Aileen, 2010
Courtesy of the artist Courtesy of the artist

Schmuck2
Hochsitz, 2010
Designed by Martí Guixé
and built by Makra Bau
Photo: Shintaro Imai

Yuka Oyama
Metamorphic Spirit
(dragon), 2010
Courtesy of the artist,
photo: Becky Yee
 Roseanne Bartley
Tracey Clement
Gabriel Craig
Jessica Craig-Martin
Martí Guixé
Lauren Kalman and
Kipp Bradford
Suska Mackert
Jhana Millers
Yuka Oyama and
Becky Yee
Mah Rana
Schmuck2
Robert Smit
Joanne Wardrop